Kate’s Suicide Story

My Sister's Keeper is about a girl named Kate Fitzgerald who is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia and with the help of her sister Anna Fitzgerald and family members, Kate lives longer than expected, however, eventually Kate makes her own decision to stop receiving treatments to die. Sarah and Brain Fitzgerald who are Kate’s parents tried everything in their power to keep Kate alive. Dr. Chance, Kate's doctor, suggested to Sarah and Brain to have a third child for the child to be a ‘donor child’ to help Kate heal when she would get sick. Kate's brother Jesse Fitzgerald and parents were not a donor match for Kate. Preimplantation with genetic testing would ensure that another child would match Kate's genes, thus, Kate's parents had a third child who was Anna.

Without Anna's permission, Anna had been through dozens of surgeries to help Kate stay alive. Although, Kate was consecutively getting sick and in the hospital. During one of Kate's appointments at the hospital, she had met Taylor Ambrose who had acute myeloid leukemia. Taylor became Kate's first boyfriend resulting in the couple taking care of one another. Taylor and Kate had an unbreakable bond until Taylor passed away because of his cancer. After this traumatic event, Kate tried to commit suicide, however, Anna was there to stop her. By the time Kate was 15-years-old, she needed a new liver that Anna was a donor for. Kate was tired of having surgeries and was always in pain due to her cancer. Kate started to notice all the changes being made in her family because she was sick. With Kate and Anna having an inseparable bond Kate needed help from her sister Anna to stop being the donor child as Kate wanted to die.

To keep Kate’s decision to die a secret from their parents, Anna hired a lawyer to sue her parents for medical emancipation. Sara, being a previous lawyer herself before Kate got sick, decided to fight her daughter, Anna in court, over an 11-year-old who can not have rights. Before the judge condoned the decision of who won the case, Jesse told the family Kate's secret to want to die. As devastated as the family was with this news, they accepted Kate's decision. After Kate's death Anna found out she had won the case for medical emancipation, Sara went back to work, Brian changed occupation from being a firefighter to help counsel troubled youths and Jesse went back to school. The Fitzgerlad family made a tradition to celebrate the life Kate lived on her birthday every year (Pacheco, Goldman, Johnson, Tropper and Furst, 2009).

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